14 October 2008

Big Brother

Is text messaging is the modern day equivalent of passing notes in class? Nah, better, 'cause you can do it when you're hundreds of miles apart.

My husband recently started a new job at a mid-sized corporation, the kind of company that has headquarters and an HR department and rules and training. (I have never, ever worked at that kind of company. We barely have a holiday policy here.) He was required to spend some time at the headquarters, which is not in New York, being indoctrinated in the ways of the company.
Him:
I am at the moment learning about the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered Diversity Networking Group. The KoolAid is sweet and I’m drinking of it copiously.

Me:
And the chip? Have they implanted the chip yet?

Him:
What chip? I do not know what you are talking about. There is no chip.

There's definitely a chip. Where are they putting them these days?

I was never into texting until I got an iPhone - it was way too laborious on my old phone. The iPhone supports text beautifully, but with one tragic flaw: there's no way to download or forward the message strings. And the string I've had back and forth with W. is like some kind of found poetry. He's kept every last one of them. I delete mine from time to time but I wanted to save the above dialogue for posterity; I had to retype the whole damned thing.

13 comments:

  1. Priceless. I have never texted until my iphone either. Now I am a menace.

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  2. What a great way to stay connected. I love that he used the word "copiously". The time that takes to type out -- that is true devotion!

    No texting in my marriage. He barely touches a keyboard, let alone phone texting. Maybe he would if he traveled for work.

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  3. Anonymous9:06 PM

    Hmmm...Kool Aid, eh? It all sounds pretty suspicious to me.

    I haven't gotten into the text-messaging thing (nor have I succombed to Facebook, parenthetically. By the way, do I have to use the word "parenthetically" here, if the comment is so obviously in the parentheses)? I don't need another addicting technology, although it all does intrigue.

    And, I do leave my cell phone off all the time. I suppose I'm really still in the dark ages, in many respects.

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  4. I HAD to learn to text when the girls got their phones. It is the ONLY way we stay connected. I LOVE it. When they say they are at so and so's house, I say- SEND ME A PHOTO RIGHT NOW, and damn, if that isn't great. They seem to tell the truth now. huh.

    love it.

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  5. Anonymous9:58 PM

    Oooooh, he works for the same company I do!

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  6. I keep all of my texts from spouse, too. Not sure why...

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  7. Another reason for me to NEED an iPhone. Hrmph.

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  8. I totally did not get texting until i got my blackberry. now i get it.

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  9. Oh, man that post gave me chills. Has he gotten the tattoo yet? I had to go through the "celebrating diversity" training once at a big corporation I worked for. They were eventually swallowed up by an even bigger corporation...after which they laid off my whole department...Now I'm strictly freelance! (And I hate KoolAid!)

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  10. My husband and I spent a great deal of our courtship sending text messages to each other. It's a great way to flirt.

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  11. I only text when I'm without the Internet or stuck at the hospital. Then it is handy, especially when the signal is too shoddy for decent voice conversations.

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  12. i sent my first text message a few weeks ago at rehearsal - I had to ask the young whipper snapper sitting next to me how to do a space

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  13. You cannot live without texting if you have teens.

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